A community forum for Bletchley – past, present and future

Renny Lodge Gates Go

The four huge gates at the entrance to Renny Lodge Hospital in Newport Pagnell have been pulled down, and with them has been the last characteristics of the old ‘poor law’ establishment. Many Bletchley people went to stay there over the years. The gates were 12 feet high, made of iron, and weighed several hundredweights.

It is hoped that just as the gates are gone, so also will go the last preduces of those people who have always thought of Renny Lodge as the workhouse, and to go there meant social disgrace.

For many years now Renny Lodge has been a friendly hospital where expert treatment is given, especially to the older folk.

I remember all the older members of our families were scared they would be taken off to Renny Lodge. For them it remained the old workhouse. My memory is of taking an 8oz coffee jar there as a newly pregnant wife, full of liquid, for a sample. The nurses were scandalized, back in 1965. We have moved on a fair bit since, I suppose.